ZUG, Switzerland -- Starr International Foundation, a charitable organization based in Switzerland, today announced its first major grants.
The Foundation has made a $4 million grant to Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) to support international humanitarian work and a $1 million grant to support various charities in Switzerland.
The foundation was established in 2006 and is dedicated to supporting a broad range of educational, environmental, artistic, cultural, medical, humanitarian and other charitable institutions in Switzerland and around the world. The Foundation is the successor to the Starr International Charitable Trust, which was founded in 1971 by Starr International Company, Inc. ("Starr International").
The Foundation is the sole stockholder of Starr International AG, a Swiss charitable corporation that holds all of the authorized shares of non-voting common stock of Starr International.
The Foundation's Board of Directors consists of Otto Saxer (President), former chief executive officer of Swiss Mobiliar; John C. Whitehead, former co-chairman of Goldman, Sachs & Co. and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, and Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg, chairman of Starr International and the retired chairman and CEO of American International Group, Inc.
"We are very happy to have the Foundation up and running, and to support through this initiative the provision of the best medical care to impoverished communities, particularly in Africa and Asia. We are confident that the Foundation will be an important European philanthropic organization in the years ahead," said Dr. Saxer.
